“SERBIAN RAILWAYS” MARKED THE INTERNATIONAL LEVELCROSSING SAFETY DAY THE

Železnice Srbije obeležile Međunarodni dan bezbednosti na putnim prelazima

“Serbian Railways” marked the International Level-Crossing Safety Day

The Action “Caution! Choose life” was successfully held in five cities of Serbia

Under the slogan “Caution! Choose life”, “Serbian Railways” organized educational-promotional action on safe passing over the level-crossings, with a view to raise awareness of all traffic participants on the danger on level-crossings, on Tuesday, June 22, at 12:00h. In that way, Serbia joined the marking of the International Level-Crossing Safety Day, together with about fifty countries.

Within its campaign, “Serbian Railways” organized the first public lesson on level-crossings in five cities of Serbia. On that occasion, in the presence of numerous citizens and the media, it was demonstrated how a train approaches a ramp, at which speed, how the half-barriers and barriers are lowered down… Informative material was distributed in the form of posters and flyers, and the experts from the area of Railway Safety explained how one should behave on the level-crossings. Public lessons were held on the level-crossings with frequent train passing, in Belgrade, Niš, Lapovo, Sremski Karlovci and Ruma. The Action was actively followed by all means of public informing, in the form of numerous reports, media stories, and appearance of the railway representatives in the media.

In Belgrade, the public lesson was held on the level-crossing between Zemun Polje and Batajnica, which is located fifteen kilometers from the city centre, but in the inhabited area. 105 cases of barrier braking were recorded on this level-crossing, from January 1, 2009 until June 22, 2010, during reckless crossing of road vehicles over the level-crossing. This information speaks in favor of the thesis that the accidents on the level-crossings are caused by recklessness and irresponsibility of road vehicle drivers in almost 100 percent of cases.

According to the statistics of the “Serbian Railways” Expert Services, the major number of accidents was caused due to negligence, carelessness, unobserving of traffic signalization, but also due to recklessness and irresponsible behavior of the participants in the road traffic. In only one case the Railways caused such event, last year.

“Serbian Railways”, will use this manifestation as introduction to a large, comprehensive educational-informative campaign on safety on level-crossings, in the area of railway stations and objects, in the vicinity of trains and railway contact lines; it is planned to begin from September and to be carried out in continuity until the next International Level-Crossing Safety Day.

MEDIA CENTRE

“SERBIAN RAILWAYS”

Tags: international level-crossing, next international, levelcrossing, marked, railways”, “serbian, international, safety